Skills of Mathematical Reflective Thinking Among Secondary School Students

This paper aims to patently identify the skills of reflective thinking among preparatory school students and investigate the differences based on gender. Several hypotheses were formulated to achieve the research goal. The sample included 300 students from the Directorate of Education in Al-Karkh First. A research tool was developed in the form of a test consisting of 20 items distributed across five skills: reflection and observation skills, detecting fallacies, drawing conclusions, providing convincing explanations, and proposing solutions. After conducting statistical analyses, the findings showed that the research sample had limited reflective thinking skills in mathematics, and male students exhibited better reflective thinking skills compared to female students. Based on these findings, the research suggested the following recommendations: introducing reflective thinking skills in mathematics to students by mathematics teachers and using models, images, and educational tools to develop reflective thinking among students. Additionally, the research proposed conducting a study that links reflective thinking skills in mathematics to other variables and conducting a similar study to investigate reflective thinking skills among students in other educational stages.